Music

I’m standing on a spot in Ronnie Scott’s where Dizzy Gillespie once threw up. ‘You didn’t want to look at the old carpet too closely,’ says Leo Green, the new musical booker at Ronnie Scott’s. ‘It was pretty sordid. And then there were the chairs – like something from your old fucking geography class. And then there was the food…’

Ronnie Scott’s might be one of the world’s most famous jazz clubs, but it has been looking shabby for a while. You might have got a thrill from using the same lavatories where Miles Davis snorted coke and where Bill Evans fixed up, but you’d also be cramped into uncomfortable seats, hearing expense-account suits jabbering loudly through the headline sets and trying to get the attention of surly waiters who’d forget to bring you drinks you’d ordered an hour ago. Feature continues

The menu, of course, was legendarily bad, as Ronnie Scott himself famously acknowledged in an early Melody Maker advert (‘Food untouched by human hand – our chef is a gorilla’). It’s little wonder that, for many jazz purists, Ronnie’s even lost its position as Soho’s pre-eminent jazz venue to the Pizza Express on Dean Street.

Ronnie’s was bought last year by Sally Greene – who runs the Old Vic and Criterion theatres – and was closed in March for major refurbishment, under the auspices of Parisian designer Jacques Garcia. The entire three-storey space has been gutted: the kitchen has been revamped (with a classy ‘traditional English’ menu); the bar and mixing desk have been moved to the back, opposite the stage; seating has been placed to the right of the stage; there is now a ramp at the entrance for wheelchair access (and a disabled toilet); the cosy downstairs bar has been redone and the upstairs dancefloor turned into a private members bar. But the main venue remains intact: they’ve tried to retain the room’s old acoustics, while each of the iconic photographs of jazz legends that lined the walls has been replaced in exactly the same position.

The refurbishment has come at a cost. Entry prices have gone up – midweek gigs have risen from £20 to £25, and the Friday and Saturday acts have soared to £35, rising to £45 for bigger names. There will also be an additional £23 charge for a two-course menu (although you can still choose not to eat, or order finger food à la carte when the main act is playing). And the headline acts will no longer be playing fixed, Monday-to-Saturday runs – there will instead be shorter residencies.